THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; New Product For Agency: Democrats

Published: March 26, 1990

''THIS is no tube of toothpaste,'' said Joey Reiman, the chairman and chief creative officer of Babbit & Reiman Advertising, about the latest product his agency is pitching. ''We're talking about very big ideas that go way beyond making your teeth brighter.''

Babbit & Reiman's client is the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of middle-of-the-road Democrats formed the year after Ronald Reagan's landslide victory over Walter F. Mondale in 1984. In New Orleans over the weekend, the council announced an effort to restore the prominence of the Democratic Party. The means to do this, the council decided, is advertising.

''The best way to launch a national grass-roots movement is by taking your ideas directly to the people,'' said Bruce Reed, policy director of the council.

In a telephone interview from New Orleans, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, the newly elected chairman of the council, said: ''If you don't have the White House, it's very hard to present a coherent image of the party and its leadership. It makes you vulnerable to being defined by your opponents.''

Governor Clinton said the campaign was not directed at the 1992 Presidential race or any other specific election. Instead, its purpose is ''to create an environment in which all of our elections can be successful.''

''We want people to feel good about the Democratic Party,'' he said.

The campaign eschews the sort of mud-slinging that has alienated many voters, even though it has been effective in recent years. The initial ad, which ran on Saturday in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and appears today in The Washington Post, depicts joyous Germans atop the Berlin wall. It carries the headline: ''Eastern Europe Isn't the Only Place That Needs New Democratic Ideas.'' The tag line borrows from John F. Kennedy, who took a defiant stand at the wall. It declares: ''The Democratic Leadership Council. It's what you can do for your country.''

Mindful of Republican attacks on Democratic patriotism, the Democrats assert in their ad that they believe in ''America's values,'' which are listed as freedom, individual responsibility, tolerance, work, faith and family. The ad provides a sketch of the council's proposals, which include civilian national service with benefits to participants modeled on the G.I. Bill of Rights, changes in education and a police corps. Future ads will concentrate on specific proposals. The campaign is also expected to include radio and television commercials.

Babbit & Reiman, whose other accounts include the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Hawaiian Tropic tanning lotions and corporate advertising for RJR Nabisco, has dabbled in political advertising before. The agency worked on several projects for Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, who preceded Mr. Clinton as chairman of the council. Last year, it worked for the Atlanta mayoral campaign of Maynard Jackson, who was elected.

Also last year, Mr. Reiman had a bright idea for an ad that depicted a jubilant President Mikhail S. Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. The headline, borrowed from the Lesley Gore song ''It's My Party,'' stated, ''It's my party, and I'll do what I want to.''

Babbit & Reiman did not have an appropriate client, so it made one up. Under the guise of a nonprofit organization it formed, called Citizens for Glasnost, the agency ran the ad and won an Addy award in Atlanta.

''Statesmen have the ideas,'' Mr. Reiman said. ''They know what to say. But how to say it? That's the job for advertising professionals.''